Braehead Shopping Centre's owners eventually saw how stupid their no photography policy was and changed it in response to the global outcry at its actions.

The Police, however, are giving no ground. I wrote yesterday about how the Police Federation Chair made a prat of himself on Newsnight Scotland. Today their statement says that no crime was committed but what they did was right - in a very turgid statement. It suggests that there was more to this than meets the eye but doesn't tell us what. It doesn't address the concern that Chris White raised about his daughter being distressed and getting told off by the Police Officer for comforting her.

It strikes me that the Police just can't take being challenged. But this raises more concerns over the SNP Government's plans for a single police force. Strathclyde Police's attitude to Chris White signifies a pretty unpleasant culture and they are the biggest force we have. I don't want that culture pervading through the rest of Scotland - and it's fairly inevitable that Strathclyde will see the process as a takeover than a merger. And of course it highlights Willie Rennie's concerns about the complaints process. If we have one force, who deals with complaints against it? I think this incident shows that Strathclyde Police are a bit lacking in the people skills department. I don't want complaints being dealt with in the same cursory manner across Scotland once the SNP bulldozer votes this bonkers proposal through.

3 comments:

The only thing that will change is that there will be far fewer chiefs, far fewer big brass.

I can understand the Tories getting themselves in a flap about that, but I can't see why the Liberals need to.

This will save money.

Other organisations do it.

And at operational level things will be much the same. After all, Strathclyde, or Lothian, even Tayside covers a wide range of areas. It isn't the same bloke that deals with the drug raddled council estates in Glasgow, Edinburgh or Dundee, that deals with cattle thefts or rabbit poaching in the wilds of the hinterland.

Let's save money and put it into policing. Not command corridors with endless numbers of useless manager.

This incident gets at part of the reason why i am a liberal. To stop authoritarian lunacy just getting in the way.

Maybe there was more to this than meets the eye. But I doubt it.

Sadly this seems to be a case of give some idiots a uniform...

I'm afraid both the security guard and the policemen involved just seem to have made prats of themselves on this one - unless somebody is going to tell me otherwise.

No emotional intelligence, no common sense, no feel for the situation and a lack of self awareness on behalf of the officials.

Someone said the guy taking the photograph didnt say it was his daughter. a) did they ask b) couldn't they work it out.

Officials pushing people around - whether they have sinister motives, are intoxicated by their own power or are just stupid - yes, these things happen. Its what civil liberties are there to protect us from - and no! there is no public safety case to argue here.

It just reminds me of the cartoon parkie telling kids off for playing football in a park, when Strathclyde's finest just bullied harmless Hearts fans sitting in the sun outside Hampden quite needlessly, or the guy who ran the snooker hall when I was young and told us we couldn't play on one of the 12 empty tables in case any of his regulars came in.